Wireless telephones are popular, ubiquitous devices. It is now possible to make and receive phone calls from almost any place in the world. Communication is even possible from remote and undeveloped areas using wireless satellite telephones. Herein, the term wireless telephone refers to any device capable of transmitting and receiving voice and/or data (non-voice) information to and from a network without the use of wires, cables, or other tangible transmission media. So-called cellular telephones are a common example of wireless phones, as are paging devices.
Wireless telephones and pagers and the networks by which they communicate operate according to various technologies, including analog mobile phone service (AMPS), circuit switching, packet switching, wireless local area network (WLAN) protocols such as IEEE 802.11 compliant networks, wireless wide-area networks (WWAN), short-range RF systems such as Bluetooth, code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency-division multiplexing (FDM), spread-spectrum, global system for mobile communications (GSM), high-speed circuit-switched data (HCSD), general packet radio system (GPRS), enhanced data GSM environment (EDGE), and universal mobile telecommunications service (UMTS). Of course, these are only examples, and other technologies may be employed in wireless communication as well.
Herein, the term ‘wireless device’ is meant to include wireless telephones (including cellular, mobile, and satellite telephones), pagers, and also a variety of other wireless devices, including wireless web-access telephones, automobile, laptop, and desktop computers that communicate wirelessly, and wireless personal digital assistants (PDAs). In general, the term ‘wireless device’ refers to any device with wireless communication capabilities.
Many companies produce wireless telephones and other wireless devices. Among the more well-known producers are Nokia®, Ericsson®, Motorola®, Panasonic®, Palm® Computer, and Handspring®. A variety of producers also provide wireless devices comprising versions of the Microsoft® Windows® operating software.
“Terminal device” refers to any device employed by a user (typically a person but also possibly an autonomous or semi-autonomous device system) to access the network environment. Examples of terminal devices are wireless telephones, pagers, PDAs, and devices that use conventional phone lines, such as Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) phones.
A “service” is information and acts available via the network. Examples of services include Short Message Service (SMS), email, and stock quotes. A “service provider” is any device or combination of devices that provides services via the network environment: Typically, a service provider provides information delivery to terminal devices, and/or performs network actions in response to requests from terminal devices. A service provider may also provide information delivery and/or network actions on behalf of another service provider.
“Information” is configurations of matter representing knowledge, e.g. “data”. Examples of information are collections of magnetic or optical bits. A “network element” is any one or more devices of a communication network, e.g. devices that participate at least occasionally in the operation of the network.
Terminal devices may provide paging capabilities. A typical pager is carried by a person and signals that person (e.g. by beeping or through vibration) when the pager receives information. Often, the information received is a telephone number or other identifying information for someone attempting to contact the person carrying the pager. Paging capabilities may be provided not only by dedicated paging devices but also by wireless telephones and other wireless devices.
During a typical paging process, the person paging dials a phone number or provides some other identifier of the person to page. The information is provided as DTMF tones to a network element, often referred to as a “paging terminal”, which converts the DTMF tones to a protocol known as the Telocator Network Paging Protocol (TNPP).
The paging information may be communicated via TNPP among paging terminals of one or more networks. Eventually the paging information reaches a network that serves the person to page. There it is converted to the Short Message Peer to Peer (SMPP) protocol. SMPP is an efficient protocol for moving small amounts of data information (as opposed to digitized or analog voice information) through networks. The paging information is moved through the network using SMPP and delivered to the paging device of the person to page using, for example, the Short Message Service (SMS).
SMS, otherwise known as text messaging, mobile messaging, or alphanumeric paging, allows for the communication of short text and numeric messages to and from wireless devices, as well as to and from public SMS messaging gateways on the Internet. A detailed description of SMS is available as part of the GSM standard.
Another messaging technique that may be employed is Enhanced Message Service (EMS). EMS supports the capabilities of SMS to communicate short text and numeric messages, but also includes capabilities for the communication of other types of data, including sound, animation, graphics, and additional text-formatting capabilities. Yet another messaging technique that may be employed is Multimedia Message Service (MMS). MMS provides for the communication of video and other advanced multimedia formats.
The multiple protocol conversions that may take place under the conventional paging process may result in inefficiencies and traffic congestion during periods when a high amount of paging takes place.